The year 2012 was a historic one for Saudi Arabia. It was the first time two women from the country competed at an Olympic Games. A month earlier, ten Saudi women climbed to Mount Everest base camp, headed by Princess Reema Bandar to raise awareness of breast cancer and to promote physical activity.

The selfie pandemic -- the cultural Ebola of our networked age -- is going global. It's bad enough that we've had the selfie as the word-of-year, the selfie as a "brilliant and terrible" TV show, the smiling selfie at Auschwitz, the selfie with a suicide as its backdrop and the selfie proudly blocking Rembrandt's most masterful self-portrait.

It's as if he came from the Dark Side of the Moon. Few would have predicted that an 18-year-old Egyptian, who wasn't even born the last time Pink Floyd released an album, would become the cover designer of the British band's latest album "The Endless River".

Four years ago, Brandon Stanton became New York City's unofficial photo-chronicler. With his blog, Humans of New York -- which has over eight million followers on social media -- he has captured the heart and soul of the city's multi-national inhabitants.

At first glance, the UAE seems ill-suited to ice hockey. The country boasts summer temperatures of up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius), and the only snow and ice to be found is usually in fabricated form in a shopping mall.

Dr. Jason Diamond knows what it's like to be sought after. The Beverly Hills plastic surgeon -- first made famous by reality show "Dr. 90210" -- has operated on a range of A-list celebrities (though he declines to name them). Yet even he was unprepared for the clamor that met him when he first visited Dubai in what was meant to be a one-time gig as a guest surgeon.

Sometimes it seems that Abu Dhabi, despite being one of the richest cities on earth, is uncertain of its identity: much of its new architecture is heavily influenced by European examples rather than a desert or Gulf vernacular.

The urge to undress a mummy can be strong. In the 19th century, Egyptologists didn't think twice about tearing off a mummy's wrappings. Even Ramses the Great couldn't avoid the indignity of being stripped bare in front of an audience of curious onlookers.

While an art student at Dumlupinar University, Turkish illustrator Murat Palta watched "Star Wars". As with the generations of fans that preceded him, he was struck by the film's epic quality. Though the movie is set in the future, Palta was reminded of the colorful Ottoman miniatures that illustrated Turkish literature from the 16th century.

Throughout my career as a doctor I have traveled from the mountains of Yemen to its deserts. I have seen first hand what happens when children give birth to children. I have seen the tombstones of girls who died too young because they married too young.

It may seem stunning that one of the most visited tourist attractions on the planet is a mall. Attracting 75 million visitors a year, The Dubai Mall gets more foot traffic than the Eiffel Tower, Niagara Falls and Disney World combined.

In the Old Testament, camels made for a very useful literary device. Primarily, they represent great wealth; When Abraham journeys to Egypt, the Pharaoh offers him a huge bounty, including sheep, servants and -- the crème de la crème -- camels, in exchange for Abraham's wife, Sarah (though in fairness, the Pharaoh thought they were siblings).

A Saudi man has lost more than 700 pounds (320 kilograms) -- more than half his body weight -- since Saudi Arabia's King ordered him hospitalized in August, according to a Saudi magazine that interviewed him at a hospital.

Jersey, Guernsey, Holstein; the world's dairy cattle breeds bear the names of some of the wettest, lushest, and greenest places in Europe, testament to the fact that to produce milk you need a lot of water.

Think of the Arab souk -- the fabled marketplaces of the Middle East -- and it immediately conjures up images straight from the Arabian Nights: mountains of yellow turmeric, shafts of light through lattices and the air thick with incense smoke.

Sometimes, residents of the Middle East have a hard time taking a joke. This, at least, is how the editor of the satirical blog the Pan-Arabia Enquirer sees it. The website, based in Dubai and self-dubbed "the world's only 7-star satirical news source," gets roughly 400,000 page views per month and is often likened to The Onion. According to its editor, some of the most popular stories are often confused for bona fide fact.

Development in Bahrain has not been slow. In half a century, the small Gulf Island has grown from a hilly, desert landscape with 143,000 inhabitants to an overcrowded metropolis of 1.2 million residents. The most striking change, however, has been topographical.

There's something extraordinary happening in Saudi Arabia right now. I should know -- you see, I was born there, lived there half my life, speak the language and understand the customs. Lately, I'm both amazed at and humbled by what I'm seeing: Extremely brave Saudi women, more driven than ever to change their society, despite the sad fact that they still aren't allowed to drive.

At first glance, it seems the graffiti revolution that descended on the Middle East in the wake of the Arab Spring has largely bypassed Dubai. The city's public transport -- usually an irresistible canvas for taggers -- remains remarkably glistening. The walls of the city's myriad new builds are unmarred by aerosol sketches. Head indoors, however, and you're likely to find a different story.

A few weeks ago, an Arabic campaign exploded on Twitter. The Arabic hashtag -- #??????_??????_?????? (loosely translated as "the salary does not meet my needs") -- reached 17 million tweets in the first two weeks.

The Middle East is currently the setting of a new form of airspace race. As the economies grow in a handful of countries in the region, so too do ambitions -- and few things symbolize a country's aspirations as aptly as an airport.

As Ramadan has drawn to a close -- and with it, mandatory daytime fasting -- Muslims can breathe a sigh of relief as their diets return to normal. Many, however, will be surprised to find their clothes a little snugger, and their health in a perilous state.